In late April 2011 the price of silver hit £940.67 per kilo, double what it had been six months beforehand. When I started making silver jewellery, a little over ten years ago, bullion cost was around £100 a kilo. At the time of typing this, it's just over £600 a kilo (check out up to date prices here). It's amazing to think back to it being so 'cheap' (relatively, of course). Even then, we were still taught to treat silver as the precious commodity it is, saving offcuts to reuse, and even collecting up sweepings, the tiny shavings created when you saw a piece of silver up. But, now, with the price so high, I'm increasingly nervous of it. And, with that nervousness, the joy of experimenting and creating has decreased a little.
I've been making jewellery with other materials for a while now, just as experiments, and I've been thinking about even more things I could try. I can't imagine turning my back on silver completely; I love it too much and know it too well. But, as the cost of pretty much everything increases dramatically, I think it's fair enough to be more careful with how we use many resources.
So far, I've experimented with copper (see here and here), and polymer clay (see here, here and here), and have always used beads in my jewellery, combined with silver, both glass and semi-precious.
Next on my list is to use the copper clay that I bought last year, expand my experiments with polymer clay, and also look to fabric and thread, (am fascinated by the idea of Kumihimo braiding already), check out wood and stone, do more with beads, of all types, and try approaching jewellery in a more multimedia-orientated way. I was also pretty inspired by this book about paper jewellery. The idea of combining different materials and techniques with still using silver (just perhaps less of it) really appeals to me.
How about you? Has the cost of materials involved in what you make, whatever it is, altered the way you use it and made you start to consider how you can expand on what you know and do, and perhaps try alternative materials? I'd love to hear, not least to get a little more inspiration!
Hope you're having a good weekend. It's amazingly un-snowy where I am...but the rest of the UK seems to be under snow or water. Hope it's okay wherever you are.
I've been making jewellery with other materials for a while now, just as experiments, and I've been thinking about even more things I could try. I can't imagine turning my back on silver completely; I love it too much and know it too well. But, as the cost of pretty much everything increases dramatically, I think it's fair enough to be more careful with how we use many resources.
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| Copper, polymer clay, semi-precious stones, wood... |
So far, I've experimented with copper (see here and here), and polymer clay (see here, here and here), and have always used beads in my jewellery, combined with silver, both glass and semi-precious.
Next on my list is to use the copper clay that I bought last year, expand my experiments with polymer clay, and also look to fabric and thread, (am fascinated by the idea of Kumihimo braiding already), check out wood and stone, do more with beads, of all types, and try approaching jewellery in a more multimedia-orientated way. I was also pretty inspired by this book about paper jewellery. The idea of combining different materials and techniques with still using silver (just perhaps less of it) really appeals to me.
How about you? Has the cost of materials involved in what you make, whatever it is, altered the way you use it and made you start to consider how you can expand on what you know and do, and perhaps try alternative materials? I'd love to hear, not least to get a little more inspiration!
Hope you're having a good weekend. It's amazingly un-snowy where I am...but the rest of the UK seems to be under snow or water. Hope it's okay wherever you are.
